While reading the latest digest of the Writing on Your Palm Yahoo! Group, I saw that Greg posted a link to an interesting Popular Science article showing off a futuristic PDA concept. The “smart communicator” would use a roll-out OLED display and projected keyboard as well as eye scanner navigation. Storage size will become larger and wireless data transfer speeds faster. Biometric security may also become an important and integrated feature. I thought it was interesting to see the writer predict that it won't be until about 2015 that we'll start seeing serious improvements in battery technology, so go ahead and buy a spare for your PDA now. Does this concept design appeal to you?

USER COMMENTS 25 comment(s)

my input on SuperPDA!(2:13pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)Wouldn't the PDA and Computer Tech be one and the same by 2015? After all computer stuff gets smaller and smaller so by then may be as small as a PDA. – by innerChambers

I perdict.(2:16pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)They will be extremely large and take up several rooms and only the 3 richsst kings in the world will be able to afford them! – by Evan Brom

What the hell(2:22pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)kind of article is this? Ofcourse pdas are getting smaller, faster and more storage. Since when has anything gotten bigger and slower? WIth the exception of prescott ) – by ChuckyCheese

Gee(2:37pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)I keep reading that the sales of PDA have been on a steady decline. Chances are, PDA's will be invisible in 2010.

The the rate of increase in “new” features of PDA's, the PDA of the future will look like the PDA of today, only with 16 more MB of memory, and 2 more colors with 6 extra pixels. It will also be $4 cheaper then today's model, and with an OS version that is a 1.5 greater revision of whatever is avialable today.

Where is the PDA with a 20Gb hard drive (or at least a 1GB)? What happened to OLED, did someone forget that this technology exists? How about slaping a 1Ghz processor into them and add voice recognition. How about greater screen resolution with real handwritting recognition. I mean, it ain't rocket science, Palm has been trickling out updates like this it he most difficult technology in the world to design for. After a year, all they can do for a new version of Zire is offer 24 megs or ram (wow, you can buy 512 MB for less then $80 retail guys), 312 Mhz processor, and 320 X 320 display. – by Topher

Question….(9:40pm EST Wed Apr 28 2004)Why are most predictions in multiples of five. Personally, I think this will all take place in 2016.

:-) – by Lefty

“PBA” ?(7:18am EST Thu Apr 29 2004)RE: There won't be any PDAs. Everyone will be using PBAs (Portable Brain Access).

That sounds great being able to take my brain with me sounds oh so handy : )– by Bovinefeces

Sleeker, slicker but not really better(9:37am EST Thu Apr 29 2004)Let's look at the general improvement in cellular phone technology for a hint. About 6 years ago cellular phones were about the size of a normal phone receiver, looked very boxy, and were heavy enough that when you clipped them to your belt they'd slowly pull your pants down. This has improved in the sense that now they're much smaller, lighter, and they've got curves and colours so sexy someone else pull your pants down for you. Of course, the reception's still terrible and you can't call out of places like elevators or subway trains where you may get trapped and need 911 rescue. Not that much of an improvement, but look at the shiny new phone! – by 10101100

The only PDAs will be in …(10:09am EST Thu Apr 29 2004)a museum! PDAs will die. What you'll have is a cell phone with all the functions of a PDA. But we have that already …Throw in an iPod.…Podular Cell Phone (PCP) – by Flintstone

Faults in the PS concept(10:58am EST Thu Apr 29 2004)Look at the drawing closely. They rely not only on the display ROLLING UP to a very tight radius, but ALSO FOLDING over!

I doubt this would be possible.

Thus to achieve a 10″ high screen, the “wand” from which the screen unrolls would need to be a bit more than 10″ long.

Not exactly pocketable.

I wonder if a better solution might be to include a mini-projector monitor? Set it up before a white letter-sized paper, adjust focus, and you get a variable screen…

Of course it would have to be super-bright … or you'd need to use it in a darkened room.

– by Purple Sage

Projected keyboards,(8:10pm EST Thu Apr 29 2004)Already exist … a startup was touting the technology… never heard much about it.

I assume they went belly up? – by dotdead

PDA User's(3:00pm EST Fri Apr 30 2004)Last year, my new year's resolution was to go completely paperless. I attend meetings with customers daily and take tons of notes. I started by throwing my Franklin Planner in the trash and committing fully to my iPAQ. I found the character-at-a-time recognition to be completely unusable so I bought a copy of Caligrapher which recognizes whole sentences. I just open the Calendar appointment and take notes directly into it. Around June I threw away my cell phone and Blackberry and bought a Samsung i700 (ya, I looked like batman with three devices hanging from my belt). Now I have cell, PDA and unlimited wireless Internet ($45 / month) in a single device. I can honestly report that my resolution was a great success to this day. FYI, most of the PDA apps for business completely suck so I wrote my own in .NET. – by Schoony